Library accepts new book on Carthage heros

A new book with details of two dozen of the founders and prominent citizens of Carthage is now available for reference at the Carthage Public Library.

Staff Reports

A new book with details of two dozen of the founders and prominent citizens of Carthage is now available for reference at the Carthage Public Library.

The book, called The Class of 2012, Hall of Carthage Heros, includes additional information about each of the first inductees of the new commemorative wall, which was established in December, 2012 at the Fair Acres Family Y in Carthage.

Abi Almandinger, the author of the book and a member of the committee choosing the inductees to the Carthage Hall of Heros, said the book is meant to provide additional information to build on what's written on the walls of the Fair Acres Family Y.

“What I did is we had only so much space on the tiles at the Y to put the information about each inductee there,” Almandinger said as she presented the book to Carthage Public Library Co-Directors Deb Haynes and Darcy Woods. “So we wanted to create a reference just as a research book for people if they were interested in learning more about the person and how they contributed to Carthage.”

The book includes newspaper articles and additional photos, if available of each of the 24 inductees.

Carthage Historian Sue Vandergriff prepared the write ups on the wall at the Fair Acres Family Y for most of the first 24 inductees. Committee Member Bill Putnam wrote the information about some of the athletes that were among the group.

The first class included early Carthage founders, such as Norris Hood, the sheriff of Jasper County in 1861; Major Charles Harrington, who started the first volunteer fire company in Carthage and served as mayor; Annie Baxter, the first woman to hold elective office in Missouri in 1890; Dr. Thomas McCune and Dr. Robert Brooks, who together provided the money in their wills for the city to build McCune-Brooks hospital; Gustav Cassil, who started the Bank of Carthage and build the Cassil Addition, some of which still stands on Central Avenue; Judge Malcolm Graeme McGregor, who worked to have Carthage incorporated as a town in 1868 and was elected as secretary of the first school board before being elected circuit judge in the 1880s; and pioneer businessman John A. Shirley, who led one of the earliest families to settle on the Carthage Square before the civil war and lost their home when it was burned by guerillas.

It also includes industrialists Joseph Palmer Leggett and Cornelius Baird Platt, who founded the company that still bears their name; Richard Marlin Perkins, who was born in Carthage, graduated from Carthage High School and was destined for fame as a zoologist and host of the pioneering wildlife show on television that became Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, and 13 others.

Vandergriff said the committee is accepting nominations for the Class of 2013 inductees, which will likely be smaller than that first class.“We don't have an exact number,” Vandegriff said. “It'll probably be 12 per year and we'd like to have a few more athletes than last year.”